But don't take MY word for it...

[poltergasm]

In college, I read all the time. It helped that I was an English major, but when not reading books I had to read, I read books I wanted to. Not long after college, I stopped. Started watching TV or fucking around more on the computer. My leisure reading was confined to Esquire magazine

Comments

[michelleleahill]

The Omnivore's Dilemma is our school-wide summer reading this year.

[poltergasm]

Schoolwide reading? How ... quaint. LOL! Good to see ya on my blog.

[michelleleahill]

I'm not sure that ninth (-12) graders are going to actually read it, but I hope so.

[twosnoos]

Our model poet / pal Jason Muhlberger is in this months' Esquire. He's one of the dudes "paryting" in Montreal. Nice! He is also an redunk rapper for whom Beau Sia does vid cameoes:

http://coacd.blogspot.com/2006/08/sweet-d-aka-jason-muhlberger.html

SEE YOU TOMORROW, SUCKA!

[poltergasm]

That was, truly, redonkulous. Good stuff.

But as good as a NERD SLAM? I doubt it.

memoir

[dfleming]

others you might like to feed your non-fiction crave

The Glass Castle
Dry (augusten burroughs)
Running with Scissors (augusten burroughs)
Heat (about mario batali, but oddly very interesting)
anything by bill bryson
off to the side (i think that's the title) by jim harrison (he's also a poet)
the color of water
please SKIP eat pray love - yuck yuck yuck
girls like us
there are so many - too many to name. as you can see, i'm a huge fan of this form!

A good novel that has a very non-fiction feel

We Need to Talk about Kevin

Also read Vanity Fair. Good article about the "comeback" of James Frey this month.

Re: memoir

[poltergasm]

I've read "Dry" and "Running With Scissors." Preferred the former to the latter, but don't get the hype about Burroughs. He's good. Solid. When it comes to memoirs, though, nothing has come close, for me, to "A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius." Though, to be fair, it's only a pseudo-memoir.

I aaaaalmost picked up "Heat." It looked good. I'll give it a shot soon.

I'm gonna keep the rest of your list handy. Good stuff. Thanks for the tips.

And yes, everyone tells me to read "Vanity Fair." And I shall!

Re: memoir

[dfleming]

Yeah, I'm not a big Eggers fan. So a lot of this is subjective for sure! Others have felt like you do about Burroughs.

(Eggers is too self-promoting for my taste, which felt very false to me. Like, I'm so swell. See, I'm so swell...til i was sick to death of it. And I didn't believe that he believed it himself.)

If you like Heat, try Reichl too.

Re: memoir

[poltergasm]

I've heard that critique of Eggers, and there's a lot to it. He can be a bit self-righteous, indeed. But I read AHWOSG when it first came out, and was mesmerized by it. His proceeding stuff was hit-and-miss for me.